Somali president seeks international aid to end food shortage

Somalia’s President, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo labelled as ”National disaster” the drought affecting his country and appealed to the international community to help raise 825 million dollars to prevent the crisis from deteriorating into a famine.

Addressing a high-level meeting on the drought response in Somalia, the president said the drought had depleted livestock, which represents the only asset many Somali people have.

According to the Food Security and Nutrition Organization, the number of Somalis in need of assistance has risen sharply in recent months, from an estimated 5 million in September 2016 to more than 6.2 million in 2017.

More than 400 million dollars have been pledged by donors to support an escalation of the drought response, and the Humanitarian Coordinator urged donors to expedite disbursement of these funds to allow partners to scale up their work.